— Nancy G.

Fun reading and education in two beautiful color books about traveling in the“good old days.” As volunteer director,
I am always looking for books that
present the history of railroad travelthat our docents can read and thusinterpret our passenger cars. Twofantastic books recently publishedfill this bill nicely: Travel by Pullman, a Century of Service by Joe
Welsh and Bill Howes (MBI
Publishing Co.) and Santa Fe’s
Super Chief and El Capitan,
1936-1971 by Patrick Dorin(TLC Publishing Co.) Both of thesebooks really provide great information
about traveling on the trains, and golly,
we sell them both in our gift shop! Comein and pick up a copy and learn about customer service aboard the trains.

A Publication of the Travel Town Museum Foundation

A color copy of this newsletter isavailable on our website at
www.traveltown.org -- click the“Hours & Activities” button. If you
would like to sponsor the Travel
Town Tender being printed in color,please contact Nancy Gneier at
323-668-0104. Thanks!

Greetings from Travel Town!

New at the Gift Shop!
AMERICAN SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY ASSOCIATION
P.O. BOX 39846 - GRIFFITH STATIONLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90039
323-668-0104 • www.traveltown.org

Volume 5, Issue 1
May 2007

Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Glendale, CA
Permit No. 6

Have you been out to Travel Town to see the “Crane” yet? The
World War II era American Locomotive Crane was donated several
years ago by the Boeing Corporation and was finally moved to theMuseum during the last week of 2006. Its large size and extreme
weight made transporting it to Travel Town quite the challenge; infact, it had to be separated into THREE pieces and required a seriesof different movements to get it all into the Park. Museum volunteers have been working overtime since mid-November, both toprepare for the “final move” in December and since then to complete the re-assembly. Under the fantastic leadership of Travel
Town Volunteer Greg Ramsey, the big girl is nearly back together
and ready for a formal dedication! The operational, Diesel-powered crane was built in 1942 for the United States War Department
and has a lifting capacity of 50 tons. Mr. Ramsey will share more
exciting details with us elsewhere in the Tender.
The long-awaited arrival of the Locomotive Crane is just the tip of
the iceberg when it comes to exciting projects going on at Travel
Town this spring. Since the first-of-the-year, we’ve had TWO more
great Boy Scout Eagle Leadership Projects completed at the Museum. Although the two scouts come from different locals, theirprojects worked in tandem to address a single long-standing display track issue. In December, Eagle candidate Gregory Ramsey, ofOxnard Troup 234, came in with a battalion of his fellow Boy Scouts

to perform a tie replacement and general remediation effort on Museum display Track 8-West – getting the track ready for the offloading of the arriving Locomotive Crane. Once the Crane was
comfortably “on the property,” our next Eagle candidate, Nick
Perino, of Burbank Troup 234, mounted an effort with fellow scoutsand students from Bellarmine-Jefferson High School to constructa landscape and ballast-retaining wall along side the same Track 8West. All of us at Travel Town are proud and appreciative of thegreat job both of these scouts did in leading their respective projects
to successful completion!
But wait, I may have saved the most exciting news for last… how
about a working steam locomotive at Travel Town? Well, I’m excited
to report that we’re on the way towards that goal! Under the leadership of Museum Volunteer Paul Boschan, venerable Southern Pacificlocomotive Number 20 is headed for a complete operational rehabilitation. Once completed, the S.P. 20 will be the first steamer to operate atTravel Town since the early 1960s. (I’ll bet there’s not many of ourreaders who remember the days when old Oahu No. 18 was chugging
around the Park.) The S.P. 20 project is just getting started, so keep an
eye on future Tenders and be sure to stop by the Park often to watch
the progress on this great locomotive resurrection!
See you at the Park!

Greg Gneier, President
May 2007Together again! After several decades apart, American Locomotive Crane 1887 was
finally reunited with her old companion CS&CV No. 1 at Travel Town on December 29,
2006 (above). The two World War II military units worked together at the Douglas
Aircraft plant inTorrance, California, in the 1950s and 60s. Our beloved little red engine
eventually left Torrance for an assignment at the McDonnell-Douglas plant in Long
Beach and came to the Park in 1989.
A vintage shot from the Travel Town Archives showing the two together at Douglas,
around 1960
The Travel Town Tender is a publication of the Travel Town Museum Foundation, a d.b.a. of the American Southwestern Railway Association, Inc. The Association is a
501(c)(3) non-profit educational corporation, dedicated to the preservation and interpretive presentation of railroad history. We work in partnership with the Los Angeles
City Department of Recreation & Parks, helping to support their operation of the Travel Town Museum. Contents © A.S.R.A., Inc., 2007, unless under other copyright.

On the Platform . . . Bob Arbuckle
This issue’s On the Platform features one of our wonderful docents, Bob Arbuckle. And we congratulate Bob on his recent marriage to Linda Lammers!
! Congratulations to the
newlyweds!

Bob began volunteering at Travel Town in 1997. Railroads were afamily business for Bob; his wonderful dad, the late Wayne Arbuckle,
had a long career with the Santa Fe Railroad and volunteered with us
for several years in the ‘90s after his retirement. Wayne had a profound effect on our volunteering program, giving first-hand knowledge of working on the railroad, from brakeman to front office to receiving clerk. Wayne received his “Brakeman” card from the Santa Fe
railroad back in 1955 and proudly showed it off whenever he volunteered! Wayne knew how to spend his retirement years – he gave backto the community by volunteering not only here at Travel Town but
also at the Gene Autry Museum and the Natural History Museum!
We got to know Bob when he accompanied his dad to our Christmas parties and other Travel Town events. Bob now continues hisfather’s tradition by regularly volunteering as a docent for us, with
the Pullman car Hunter’s Point being his favorite.

" Bob shows off the interior of the
Pullman car Rose Bowl.

“The Little Nugget” Guest Book Comes Home!
Earlier this year, the Travel Town Museum Foundation received avery wonderful donation from Rich Ruh, Grandson of Johnny T.
Ruh, the bartender of the
Little Nugget. The entire Ruhfamily has been very supportive in our restoration of“The Little Nugget” and thiscontribution is a fantastic artifact! This book has original
signatures, poems, and traveling notes from riders of“Johnny T” at the Bar in the famous “Little“The City of Los Angeles”
Nugget.” (Ruh family photograph, ASRA
dating from 1942 throughcollection.)1945 — attesting to the factthat “the Little Nugget” was one of the few lounge cars that operated during World War II, a period when troop movements took
took precedence and the government forbid the operation of “nonrevenue” cars in the train. This book appears to be the sequel to theoriginal signature book that is currently at the Union Pacific Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. The last entry in the first book was
dated December 6, 1941 (for you younger folks, that was the day
BEFORE the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor). One of the famous
signatures we recognized was from Tommy Dorsey, a band leader
known for such songs as “I’m getting Sentimental Over You” and“I’ll Never Smile Again.” Another famous band leader who signed
the book was Benny Goodman, famous clarinetist.

Here’s a poem from someone who signed the same page as Tommy
Dorsey:Physically a train is a cold thing of steel,Spiritually it is a warm human thing you can feelWhy?
That’s easyIt’s the engineer, the fireman, the conductor, the steward,
Gentleman all, prime hosts of the land
Three cheers for them all – long may they stand!
Another poem:
We rode in this car but not very far
The girls who were with us were “movie stars”
The roadbed is excellent and we’re not kidding,But believe it or not our cocktails went skidding!
A.B. Malouf and Sperry Lawson from Los Angeles

Greg Gneier and I met with a number of craneand heavy trucking contractors, but the best
offer came from a combination of Smith Brothers Crane services and Homer Mann Trucking. The City was going to process the purchase orders, so we submitted the quotes to
the Travel Town staff, and waited for City
purchasing system to run its course. My job
makes me travel extensively and often, but
the end of the year is generally a slow time forme, so we were trying to fast-track this so we
could make our deadline of trucking the craneby the end of 2006. We set a date for December 28th – because it was between the holidays, I had a larger crew to work with.
During the fall, several of us started disassembling parts of the crane, at least thoseparts we could without taking away its ability
to move on its own. Finally on December
23rd, we moved the crane from its parking
location for the last six years and moved it to
the west end where the cranes would haveroom to lift it onto trucks. We begin to takethe drive mechanism apart, and after taking a
break for Christmas, we got serious on the
26th. By the afternoon of the 27th the two
sections were ready to separate. Early thenext morning, a large crew of Travel Town
volunteers gathered next to Levitz and began
removing fencing and barricades. On cue, thetwo Smith Brothers cranes and support trucks
rolled in at 7:00 a.m. Over the next hour, thecrane crews “built” their cranes, preparing

them to share the two expected 115,000 pound
lifts. By 8:00 a.m., the first of the nine-axle
trucks had arrived and we were soon lifting
the house off the car body. Adding the loads
from the two cranes, the house was weighing in almost 12,000 pounds less than we expected. It was quickly swung over the street
and onto the first truck. As soon as the house
was centered and cribbed, the truck pulledforward and the second pulled into place.
Once the riggers had re-rigged for the car
body, it too went into the air. Unfortunately
we then found out where the missing 12,000
pounds was. The load was still within thecapacities of the combined cranes, but as they
were swinging it out over the street, there
were a few tense moments as the load meterslowly crept up near the limit as it boomed
out to reach the truck.
By 10:00 a.m. the trucks were loaded, and we
took off for Travel Town via the 134 freeway
and the Zoo Drive exit, and then parked along
Zoo Drive while we waited for the crane. The
cranes still had to break down to be street
legal again and took another hour to hit theroad but by 11:00 a.m. they were on their way
and then were quickly re-rigged to lift again
inside the northwest corner of the Park along
Track 8-West. Unloading was much more
complicated due to the access and clearance
issues. And it was compounded by the factthat the nine-axle truck carrying the car body
can’t back with a load. It had to pull straightin the gate and up and over Track 8 between
the two cranes, and then with the load up in
the air, back out from under the load, with me
towing the back end with Travel Town’s
loader. And lifting the house wasn’t mucheasier. Since one crane had set up with its
outriggers fouling the track, and the second
truck also had to pull up and over the track,
we had to move the car body out of the way.
That meant the smaller crane had to retract
its outriggers, we pulled the car body to theeast with Charley, the crane reset its

outriggers, the truck pulled in, the cranes
lifted the house, the truck backed out, thecranes set the house on the ground adjacentto the track on blocks, the crane again pulled
its outriggers in, we pushed the car body backinto place, Charley escaped to the East, thecrane reset its outriggers, and they again
picked the house up and finally placed it on
the car body. But that simple description wasin reality a major chore. The car body had thevertical drive shaft sticking straight up in theair, and that had to be plumbed perfectly into
the bearing in the center of the house. In
addition, the slewing gear had to mesh exactly with the bull gear and the gib ring had
to align perfectly around the circumferenceof it all. Needless to say, that in itself took anhour or more to accomplish. But I have toreally tip my hat to the crew from Smith Brothers Crane. Little of the unloading had goneaccording to plan, largely due to more weightin the car body, and the fact that the trucks
could not back in. But the crane operatorsand riggers never complained. We just put
our heads together, and figured out how tomake it work. And work it did. We were stillon time compared to the estimate, and not asingle injury.
Since January, we’ve spent almost every Saturday and a few Sundays putting the drive
train back together, repairing air leaks andreplacing rubber diaphragms in all the operators. But we’ve operated it twice under
its own power now. And have even used it
to switch once. We have a lot of mechanicalwork to do, and still more painting and othercosmetic work, but by the time you read this,the boom should be reinstalled, and who
knows, we may have even done a small lift
or two.

¨

Looking at the signatures and the comments in this book is likelooking into the past. Imagine traveling across the country in opulent style – maybe this is your first trip across our great nation,
maybe you’ve made the trip several times for business. You decideto go into the bar car for a drink and sign your name to a book on
the counter. Many folks are very appreciative of the great service
from Johnny; one complains about the food that has been rationed(instead of steak in the dining car, he could only have hamburger orchicken). Maybe some time 50 years in the future someone will pullup a blog from 2007 on Myspace.com, but I rather doubt it. This
book is a wonderful time capsule of comments and public opinion
about traveling in the 1940s.

I contacted American Ohio Locomotive
Cranes of Bucyrus, Ohio, and they supplied
us with lots of technical advice, new operators’ manuals, and component weights. Theirsales manager, Craig Goodenough, even offered to come look at our crane on his next
trip to the West Coast. He supplied us with awealth of knowledge of how it could be disassembled, and he left me with the confidence
I could safely take it apart, and even more
importantly, that I could put it back together.

¨Red arrows indicate the signaturesof Tommy Dorsey (above) andBenny Goodman (right).

2

4:50 p.m.: Now at Travel Town, after
a lot of site preparation (and lunch),
the car body has been lifted off thetruck and held in the air while the 9axle truck backed out from underneath.
Soon the car body will be lowered
onto the Museum rails.

5:55 p.m.: The car body is on the rails
and has been moved out of the way by
our locomotive “Charley.” The second
9-axle truck has pulled in across the
track and Smith Bros. cranes have lifted
the machinery house off the truck. The
9-axle will now back out of the way.

7

6:27 p.m.: The 9-axle truck out of theway, Charley pushed the car body backinto position under the machineryhouse. Now comes the delicate
operation of realigning the two pieces:“threading a needle” to get the center
drive shaft perfectly lined up.

10:20 p.m.: Both halves of the crane areback together at Travel Town, the sitecleaned up, and Smith Bros. have packed
up their cranes and gone on to their next
job ... an exhausted, filthy and delighted
Greg Ramsey can finally take a breath.

American Locomotive Crane 1887 by Greg Ramsey

1998: American Locomotive Crane 1887 during
its last days at the Boeing (McDonnell-Douglas)
plant in Torrance. The boom was removed andtransported to the Museum a few days afterGreg Ramsey took this photo.

American Hoist and Derrick locomotive craneserial number 1887 was built for the U.S. War
Department and delivered to Madison, Indiana, in 1943. It is a Model 508CD of a nominal
40-ton capacity, the CD standing for Caterpillar Diesel, the engine manufacturer. Its service
history hasn’t been completely researched yet,but we do know by the 1960s it had made its
way west and was working at the Douglas Aircraft Plant in Torrance, California, along withan EMC Model 40 and a former Navy flatcar –both of which would eventually be donated to
the Travel Town Museum.
I first became aware of the crane sometime in1997, when a Travel Town volunteer approached me as President of the SCSRA andsuggested that Boeing Aircraft (which had
merged and absorbed McDonnell Douglas)

8:45 a.m.: After two hours of set-up,
the first lift was to pick the “machineryhouse” up off the car body.

might be willing to donate it as well as someother equipment. I contacted Boeing and subsequently sent a letter in December 1997 requesting donation of the crane and a flatcar, as
well as other material. It turned out our request
was a bit premature, but in January 1999 Boeing
called and asked if we were still interested. I
replied with another letter indicating our intent
to go forward with the acquisition while I
worked to get approval from the City of Los
Angeles, as well as figure out how we would
ever get it to Travel Town. Originally, the Douglas plant had access to both Southern Pacifictracks as well as the Alcoa Spur off of the Santa
Fe’s Harbor Sub, but by this time the connection to the SP was long gone, and though the
Alcoa spur still reached the edge of the Boeing
property, the plant railroad was no longer connected to it. To further complicate things, eventhough the City readily agreed to accept thecrane, what we thought was going to be theimminent start of construction of our new Pavilion building at Travel Town prevented ourtrucking the crane directly to Travel Town. So
we were going to have to figure out someplace
to store it for a few years.
By March 1999, Boeing had formally donatedthe crane and flatcar. We used the crane to load
the flatcar and a couple of leftover track panels
on a semi and sent them to Travel Town. By thetime the truck returned, we had removed thecrane’s hook and prepared the boom to come off,
and we lowered it directly onto the truck. Afterthe semi left, we moved the rest of the crane off
Boeing property and surrounded it with rent-afence. This was at best a temporary situation soin October of 1999, I sent a letter to the BNSF, thistime writing directly to Robert Krebs, Presidentof the BNSF, asking for a waiver of the friction
bearing rule so we could move the crane north.
This time, our request
was approved, and as
the local BNSF
people reported to me,

the letter was sent back down the chain of command with a note on it from Mr. Krebs to “makeit happen.” But we were still having trouble
locating a place to store it. Finally we foundanother spur in Hawthorne, and I was able toget permission from Somerville Plywood to store
it next to their warehouse, and on November 29,
1999, we made our first move on the mainline.
Development soon threatened our new spur,and by the fall of 2000 I had obtained permission to not only make another move over the
BNSF, we had permission to move over
Metrolink tracks to a new storage locationon the Levitz spur off of West San Fernando
just below the 134 freeway. Unfortunately,
it would sit there for the next six years, a victim of further delays with construction of thePavilion building and the SCSRA leaving theTravel Town Museum.
I have had a number of informal discussions
with trucking firms over the years to determine what it was going to take to truck thecrane to the Museum. In 2006, I started getting serious. Contractors Cargo examined thecrane, the route and the Museum, and gave
us an estimate of over $68,000 to move thecrane in one piece. That was way beyond
any kind of budget we could justify for the
crane, and clearly we had to find another way.
It was suggested early on we would have toseparate the crane into at least two pieces forthe move, and I began to seriously study how
this could be done. Unlike a modern cranewith hydraulics or diesel electric drive, ourcrane is a diesel direct drive, with a verticaldrive shaft connecting the machinery houseand the car body. (Note from editor: The“car body” is the deck part with the wheels
attached. The “Machinery house” is thecab part that is the big blue box in all the
pictures.) It wasn’t clear how
things came apart.

9:10 a.m.: With the machinery houseoff, volunteers took quick advantage
off this singular opportunity to inspect
and lubricate the turret rollers. This is
likely the first time these rollers had
been exposed in fifty years - andprobably the last time for another 50!

8:54 a.m.: Now separated from thecar body, the machinery house isturned 90-degrees and loaded onto a
waiting 9-axle truck.

6(continued)

Polar Express Pajama Party
This past Christmas season we had a wonderful holiday celebration with our Polar Express Pajama Party! Over 130 people enjoyedhot chocolate and cookies while watching our favorite holiday
movie, starring Tom Hanks. This year the festivities were evenbetter thanks to the Los Angeles Best Buy store, located on Los
Feliz next to Toys-R-Us and Costco. They allowed us to borrow
four “big screen” television sets to view the movie, and we wereable to have our patrons spread out through Holden’s Corner andthe Butler Building to enjoy the movie. Santa was also welcoming
visitors that evening!
If you or your business would like to sponsor this event for thisupcoming year, please contact Nancy Gneier for information. Welove bringing special events like this to our patron families, but wealso need help like the generous donation from Best Buy.

) Our Executive Director stirs up some
hot chocolate for patrons in her
snappy pajamas and festive hat!

) One of our patrons comes dressed
appropriately in his Thomas pajamas!
* And another contemplates how
many marshmallows to put in that
hot chocolate…

) Volunteer Manager Paulette Westphal
and a caring patron address holiday
wishes to troops overseas. These
cards and letters to Santa were worked
on while waiting for the movie to start.

) The crowds gathering!

All Aboard!
A warm welcome to the newest members and renewing supporters of the Travel Town Museum Foundation.

STREAMLINERS
Naomi Despres
Arnie & Judy Fishman
Henry Lewin
Linda Vertrees
Chris Yoon Kim

YARDMASTERS
Mickianne Bradshaw
Judeth Cosgrove
Rachel Park
Jamieson & Bethany Price
Kathryn Ragat

9:30 a.m.: The car body, with trucks
attached, is lowered onto the second
9-axle truck for the drive to the Park.

) Thanks to Best Buy on Los Feliz forthese great TV’s! Shop at Best Buy!

For membership
information, call
323-668-0104

EXPRESS AGENTS
Melissa Arizpe
Gus Barden
Ken Bray-Ali
Bristow Family
Dale Brown
Kim Campbell
Cervantes Family
Michael Christansen
Kim CochranRiley Cohn
Juliana Crovch
David A. DeJute
Patrick Dore
Margie Edison
Christopher & Mary Eichler
Jeffrey Fink
Lisa Fisher
Laura Frazer

Peter & Jaime Gertmenian
Kelly & Connor Gilmore
Louis J. Gonzalez
Frederick V. Grenot
Maria Grimson
Marina Groysman
Laura Horn
Nicole Jacobson
Jonas Johnson
Gino Joukar
Marilynne Kennedy
Wendy Knutson
Savina Kollmorgow
Alec Krueger
Tina & Mark Lavallee
Karen Lewer
Terry Mayling
Eileen McCarthy

3

Michael Melo
William Meyers
Wendy Miller
Andy & Lisa Milne
Kristine Mitchell
Sandra Molieri
Vicky Montes
Kim Nakamura
Jonathan Norman
Melissa O’Gara
Ileana Ortiz
Dean & Jennifer Pappas
Lucas Pearce
Christine Peters
June Polin
Diane & Timothy Price
Benjamin Raimo
Ray Reynolds

Shari Rosenthal
David Russell
Jordan Daniel Salas
Suzanne Sanchez
Rocio Sandaval
Oliver Schaack
Barbara Schlosser
Jake Schneider
Pam Shamshiki
Henry & James Silva
Russ Squires
Eric Stein
Shari Steinberg
Ross Tansey
Martha Ventura
Stephanie Williams

We’ve Been Working . . .
The first few months of 2007 have been very busy ones for Travel
Town’s hard-working volunteer team. At the forefront of these
efforts has been reassembly
and rehabilitation work on
the newly-arrived American
Locomotive Crane. Our volunteers have logged in over
700 greasy hours on this big
piece of equipment - before,
during and after its
Herculean move to the Museum in late December. Thusfar, most of the work has
Greg Ramsey meshes with the gears been “mechanical” – realigninside the American Locomotive Crane. ment and lubrication ofgears, rebuilding of air-operated control systems, and trial movements of the trucks and machineryhouse. In the coming weeks, the efforts
will culminate in the “stepping” of theboom, rigging of lifting cables, and thena much-needed repainting. We’re planning a formal dedication ceremony later
this year, so watch for updates!

Always with a smile, Kirk Reinholtz
tightens the gib ring bolts on theAmerican Locomotive Crane.

Just down the track from theAmerican Crane… Round twoin the repainting of theMuseum’s wood-sided Southern Pacific Box Car is in fullswing. We’re pleased and fortunate to have another greatgroup of high school students
from the nearby Zoo Magnet
High School working with us on
this refurbishment project. Under the leadership of Museum
Staffer John Coghlan and Foundation Director Nancy Gneier,two groups of students areworking alternate weekdays on
the Box Car as part of their highschool class curriculum. The
students learn a myriad of bothskills and history while they are
working at the Museum!

Over on Track 8-West, we’ve had more than fifty teens and adults
taking part in TWO Boy Scout Eagle Leadership Projects - performing upgrades and rehabilitation work on this display track area. Eagle
Scout candidates Gregory Ramsey and Nick
Perino each lead a task
force; one group removing and replacing wornout track ties and the second group erecting alandscape retaining wall
Eagle Scout candidate Nick Perino andalongside the track.
crew
shovel ballast to finish their landscapeThree cheers for both ofwall project along Track 8-West.
these fine young men!
Eagle Scout candidate Gregory Ramsey
leads his task force on a big tie-replacement
effort on Track 8-West.

An unusually somber
moment for Steve Devorkin;removing old glass fromthe crane window sash.

Come Jointhe Fun!

On the Railroad!
Somehow, in the midst of everything else, our volunteers also foundtime to put a new pilot beam on the “Conrock” steam locomotive.
The front beams on many of the Museum
locomotives have virtually disintegrated
over the 50+ years they have been outdoors in the Park.
For the Conrock,a new Douglas fir
timber was purchased, drilled,
treatedwithwood preservative, painted andthen mounted on
Brad Slosar prepares to the front of thedill bolt holes in the new locomotive. We“pilot beam” for thehave a number ofConrock locomotive.
other engines at
Greg Gneier and Brad
Travel Town that desperately need thisSlosar installing the lastsame operation. We can certainly use a few few bolts on the themore good volunteers to help with this – Conrock’s new pilot beam.
no special skills needed.

In addition to Paul Boschan, we’re also very pleased to welcome
several other new volunteers to our Travel Town family! John
Evans, a native of the United Kingdom, has joined our Docent
Team and our Board of Trustees. John has a longtime interest in
trains and was actively involved in the successful restoration of a
big 2-10-0 steam locomotive in Great Britain.
We also want to welcome and congratulate sisters Samantha and Sabrina
Desjardins, two high school volunteers
who have each recently completed 50
volunteer hours! Great work, girls!

Making Travel Town a true “family affair” we also welcome Kirk Reinholtz,
his wife Virginia Choate, and their son
Derek to our volunteer team. Derek cameout one Saturday to serve a few hours aspart of our High School Service Learning Program; mom and dad asked if they
could hang around for the orientation… The Desjardins sisters,by the end of the day, all three were cov- Samantha and Sabrina, areregular features on theered with grease from an exciting day’s
Holden’s Corner circuit!
workon the Locomotive Crane! Since
then, Derek has made time between
mountain biking and high school
swim meets to log in over 50 hours
at the Museum; Virginia joined inwith our Docent Tours and Kirk immediately become a key part of ourCrane restoration effort. Special
John Stumreiter begins work on
congratulation go to Kirk who has
the S.P. 20’s smoke box.
already surpassed the 100-hour markWhen not at Travel Town, John works
as a Travel Town Volunteer!

We’re very excited to report that rehabilitation work has begun on thevenerable Southern Pacific steam
locomotive No. 20! Under the leadership of Museum Volunteer PaulBoschan, the little 1890’s locomotive is on its way towards a return to
STEAM operation! The locomotive
will be disassembled and rebuilt fromthe rails up, receiving a new boiler
in the process. Paul is proprietor of
Boschan Boiler & Restorations, Inc. with Operation Lifesaver. Here we seeof Carson, California – you can see him with the famous Santa Fe 3751,
We’re always looking for new volsome of his firm’s fine work chug- portraying Travis the Safety Owl at a
unteers – and, as you can see, weging around on the Disneyland Rail- recent OLS safety presentation at Los
have a myriad of projects and jobs
road! We’re excited to have Paul Angeles Union Station.
going on – something for nearlyvolunteering with us at Travel Town
every talent or interest, whether
and look forward to seeing the S.P. 20 under steam again!
you like to get greasy or stay clean. Please stop by the Museum or
give our volunteer coordinator Paulette a call or email if you would
like more information on joining our great Travel Town Volunteer
Team! 323-668-0104 or volunteers.tt@traveltown.org. You can evenregister on-line at www.traveltown.org!

Visit
av
elto
wn.or
www
.tr
www.tr.trav
aveltoeltown.or
wn.orgg
and click on“Volunteer at Travel Town”
to learn more!

Arthur Mesa (left) andAaron Snyder remove
loose paint from the topof the boxcar - the roof
has also been preppedand corrosealed, aprocess which prevents
rust from spreading.
Valerie Watson (left) andAllison Senac put a lastcoat of paint on the south
side of the car.

Steam restorationist, PaulBoschan - delighted to beworking on the “SP 20.”

4

Volunteer leader Greg
Gneier shows son, Tim, thefiner points of rebuilding
a 1937 Pullman door lock.
(Greg has never actually
been to Martha’s Vineyard,
only heard about it.)Southern Pacific locomotive No. 20 as she looked at the start of therehabilitation project.

5

We’ve Been Working . . .
The first few months of 2007 have been very busy ones for Travel
Town’s hard-working volunteer team. At the forefront of these
efforts has been reassembly
and rehabilitation work on
the newly-arrived American
Locomotive Crane. Our volunteers have logged in over
700 greasy hours on this big
piece of equipment - before,
during and after its
Herculean move to the Museum in late December. Thusfar, most of the work has
Greg Ramsey meshes with the gears been “mechanical” – realigninside the American Locomotive Crane. ment and lubrication ofgears, rebuilding of air-operated control systems, and trial movements of the trucks and machineryhouse. In the coming weeks, the efforts
will culminate in the “stepping” of theboom, rigging of lifting cables, and thena much-needed repainting. We’re planning a formal dedication ceremony later
this year, so watch for updates!

Always with a smile, Kirk Reinholtz
tightens the gib ring bolts on theAmerican Locomotive Crane.

Just down the track from theAmerican Crane… Round twoin the repainting of theMuseum’s wood-sided Southern Pacific Box Car is in fullswing. We’re pleased and fortunate to have another greatgroup of high school students
from the nearby Zoo Magnet
High School working with us on
this refurbishment project. Under the leadership of Museum
Staffer John Coghlan and Foundation Director Nancy Gneier,two groups of students areworking alternate weekdays on
the Box Car as part of their highschool class curriculum. The
students learn a myriad of bothskills and history while they are
working at the Museum!

Over on Track 8-West, we’ve had more than fifty teens and adults
taking part in TWO Boy Scout Eagle Leadership Projects - performing upgrades and rehabilitation work on this display track area. Eagle
Scout candidates Gregory Ramsey and Nick
Perino each lead a task
force; one group removing and replacing wornout track ties and the second group erecting alandscape retaining wall
Eagle Scout candidate Nick Perino andalongside the track.
crew
shovel ballast to finish their landscapeThree cheers for both ofwall project along Track 8-West.
these fine young men!
Eagle Scout candidate Gregory Ramsey
leads his task force on a big tie-replacement
effort on Track 8-West.

An unusually somber
moment for Steve Devorkin;removing old glass fromthe crane window sash.

Come Jointhe Fun!

On the Railroad!
Somehow, in the midst of everything else, our volunteers also foundtime to put a new pilot beam on the “Conrock” steam locomotive.
The front beams on many of the Museum
locomotives have virtually disintegrated
over the 50+ years they have been outdoors in the Park.
For the Conrock,a new Douglas fir
timber was purchased, drilled,
treatedwithwood preservative, painted andthen mounted on
Brad Slosar prepares to the front of thedill bolt holes in the new locomotive. We“pilot beam” for thehave a number ofConrock locomotive.
other engines at
Greg Gneier and Brad
Travel Town that desperately need thisSlosar installing the lastsame operation. We can certainly use a few few bolts on the themore good volunteers to help with this – Conrock’s new pilot beam.
no special skills needed.

In addition to Paul Boschan, we’re also very pleased to welcome
several other new volunteers to our Travel Town family! John
Evans, a native of the United Kingdom, has joined our Docent
Team and our Board of Trustees. John has a longtime interest in
trains and was actively involved in the successful restoration of a
big 2-10-0 steam locomotive in Great Britain.
We also want to welcome and congratulate sisters Samantha and Sabrina
Desjardins, two high school volunteers
who have each recently completed 50
volunteer hours! Great work, girls!

Making Travel Town a true “family affair” we also welcome Kirk Reinholtz,
his wife Virginia Choate, and their son
Derek to our volunteer team. Derek cameout one Saturday to serve a few hours aspart of our High School Service Learning Program; mom and dad asked if they
could hang around for the orientation… The Desjardins sisters,by the end of the day, all three were cov- Samantha and Sabrina, areregular features on theered with grease from an exciting day’s
Holden’s Corner circuit!
workon the Locomotive Crane! Since
then, Derek has made time between
mountain biking and high school
swim meets to log in over 50 hours
at the Museum; Virginia joined inwith our Docent Tours and Kirk immediately become a key part of ourCrane restoration effort. Special
John Stumreiter begins work on
congratulation go to Kirk who has
the S.P. 20’s smoke box.
already surpassed the 100-hour markWhen not at Travel Town, John works
as a Travel Town Volunteer!

We’re very excited to report that rehabilitation work has begun on thevenerable Southern Pacific steam
locomotive No. 20! Under the leadership of Museum Volunteer PaulBoschan, the little 1890’s locomotive is on its way towards a return to
STEAM operation! The locomotive
will be disassembled and rebuilt fromthe rails up, receiving a new boiler
in the process. Paul is proprietor of
Boschan Boiler & Restorations, Inc. with Operation Lifesaver. Here we seeof Carson, California – you can see him with the famous Santa Fe 3751,
We’re always looking for new volsome of his firm’s fine work chug- portraying Travis the Safety Owl at a
unteers – and, as you can see, weging around on the Disneyland Rail- recent OLS safety presentation at Los
have a myriad of projects and jobs
road! We’re excited to have Paul Angeles Union Station.
going on – something for nearlyvolunteering with us at Travel Town
every talent or interest, whether
and look forward to seeing the S.P. 20 under steam again!
you like to get greasy or stay clean. Please stop by the Museum or
give our volunteer coordinator Paulette a call or email if you would
like more information on joining our great Travel Town Volunteer
Team! 323-668-0104 or volunteers.tt@traveltown.org. You can evenregister on-line at www.traveltown.org!

Visit
av
elto
wn.or
www
.tr
www.tr.trav
aveltoeltown.or
wn.orgg
and click on“Volunteer at Travel Town”
to learn more!

Arthur Mesa (left) andAaron Snyder remove
loose paint from the topof the boxcar - the roof
has also been preppedand corrosealed, aprocess which prevents
rust from spreading.
Valerie Watson (left) andAllison Senac put a lastcoat of paint on the south
side of the car.

Steam restorationist, PaulBoschan - delighted to beworking on the “SP 20.”

4

Volunteer leader Greg
Gneier shows son, Tim, thefiner points of rebuilding
a 1937 Pullman door lock.
(Greg has never actually
been to Martha’s Vineyard,
only heard about it.)Southern Pacific locomotive No. 20 as she looked at the start of therehabilitation project.

5

American Locomotive Crane 1887 by Greg Ramsey

1998: American Locomotive Crane 1887 during
its last days at the Boeing (McDonnell-Douglas)
plant in Torrance. The boom was removed andtransported to the Museum a few days afterGreg Ramsey took this photo.

American Hoist and Derrick locomotive craneserial number 1887 was built for the U.S. War
Department and delivered to Madison, Indiana, in 1943. It is a Model 508CD of a nominal
40-ton capacity, the CD standing for Caterpillar Diesel, the engine manufacturer. Its service
history hasn’t been completely researched yet,but we do know by the 1960s it had made its
way west and was working at the Douglas Aircraft Plant in Torrance, California, along withan EMC Model 40 and a former Navy flatcar –both of which would eventually be donated to
the Travel Town Museum.
I first became aware of the crane sometime in1997, when a Travel Town volunteer approached me as President of the SCSRA andsuggested that Boeing Aircraft (which had
merged and absorbed McDonnell Douglas)

8:45 a.m.: After two hours of set-up,
the first lift was to pick the “machineryhouse” up off the car body.

might be willing to donate it as well as someother equipment. I contacted Boeing and subsequently sent a letter in December 1997 requesting donation of the crane and a flatcar, as
well as other material. It turned out our request
was a bit premature, but in January 1999 Boeing
called and asked if we were still interested. I
replied with another letter indicating our intent
to go forward with the acquisition while I
worked to get approval from the City of Los
Angeles, as well as figure out how we would
ever get it to Travel Town. Originally, the Douglas plant had access to both Southern Pacifictracks as well as the Alcoa Spur off of the Santa
Fe’s Harbor Sub, but by this time the connection to the SP was long gone, and though the
Alcoa spur still reached the edge of the Boeing
property, the plant railroad was no longer connected to it. To further complicate things, eventhough the City readily agreed to accept thecrane, what we thought was going to be theimminent start of construction of our new Pavilion building at Travel Town prevented ourtrucking the crane directly to Travel Town. So
we were going to have to figure out someplace
to store it for a few years.
By March 1999, Boeing had formally donatedthe crane and flatcar. We used the crane to load
the flatcar and a couple of leftover track panels
on a semi and sent them to Travel Town. By thetime the truck returned, we had removed thecrane’s hook and prepared the boom to come off,
and we lowered it directly onto the truck. Afterthe semi left, we moved the rest of the crane off
Boeing property and surrounded it with rent-afence. This was at best a temporary situation soin October of 1999, I sent a letter to the BNSF, thistime writing directly to Robert Krebs, Presidentof the BNSF, asking for a waiver of the friction
bearing rule so we could move the crane north.
This time, our request
was approved, and as
the local BNSF
people reported to me,

the letter was sent back down the chain of command with a note on it from Mr. Krebs to “makeit happen.” But we were still having trouble
locating a place to store it. Finally we foundanother spur in Hawthorne, and I was able toget permission from Somerville Plywood to store
it next to their warehouse, and on November 29,
1999, we made our first move on the mainline.
Development soon threatened our new spur,and by the fall of 2000 I had obtained permission to not only make another move over the
BNSF, we had permission to move over
Metrolink tracks to a new storage locationon the Levitz spur off of West San Fernando
just below the 134 freeway. Unfortunately,
it would sit there for the next six years, a victim of further delays with construction of thePavilion building and the SCSRA leaving theTravel Town Museum.
I have had a number of informal discussions
with trucking firms over the years to determine what it was going to take to truck thecrane to the Museum. In 2006, I started getting serious. Contractors Cargo examined thecrane, the route and the Museum, and gave
us an estimate of over $68,000 to move thecrane in one piece. That was way beyond
any kind of budget we could justify for the
crane, and clearly we had to find another way.
It was suggested early on we would have toseparate the crane into at least two pieces forthe move, and I began to seriously study how
this could be done. Unlike a modern cranewith hydraulics or diesel electric drive, ourcrane is a diesel direct drive, with a verticaldrive shaft connecting the machinery houseand the car body. (Note from editor: The“car body” is the deck part with the wheels
attached. The “Machinery house” is thecab part that is the big blue box in all the
pictures.) It wasn’t clear how
things came apart.

9:10 a.m.: With the machinery houseoff, volunteers took quick advantage
off this singular opportunity to inspect
and lubricate the turret rollers. This is
likely the first time these rollers had
been exposed in fifty years - andprobably the last time for another 50!

8:54 a.m.: Now separated from thecar body, the machinery house isturned 90-degrees and loaded onto a
waiting 9-axle truck.

6(continued)

Polar Express Pajama Party
This past Christmas season we had a wonderful holiday celebration with our Polar Express Pajama Party! Over 130 people enjoyedhot chocolate and cookies while watching our favorite holiday
movie, starring Tom Hanks. This year the festivities were evenbetter thanks to the Los Angeles Best Buy store, located on Los
Feliz next to Toys-R-Us and Costco. They allowed us to borrow
four “big screen” television sets to view the movie, and we wereable to have our patrons spread out through Holden’s Corner andthe Butler Building to enjoy the movie. Santa was also welcoming
visitors that evening!
If you or your business would like to sponsor this event for thisupcoming year, please contact Nancy Gneier for information. Welove bringing special events like this to our patron families, but wealso need help like the generous donation from Best Buy.

) Our Executive Director stirs up some
hot chocolate for patrons in her
snappy pajamas and festive hat!

) One of our patrons comes dressed
appropriately in his Thomas pajamas!
* And another contemplates how
many marshmallows to put in that
hot chocolate…

) Volunteer Manager Paulette Westphal
and a caring patron address holiday
wishes to troops overseas. These
cards and letters to Santa were worked
on while waiting for the movie to start.

) The crowds gathering!

All Aboard!
A warm welcome to the newest members and renewing supporters of the Travel Town Museum Foundation.

STREAMLINERS
Naomi Despres
Arnie & Judy Fishman
Henry Lewin
Linda Vertrees
Chris Yoon Kim

YARDMASTERS
Mickianne Bradshaw
Judeth Cosgrove
Rachel Park
Jamieson & Bethany Price
Kathryn Ragat

9:30 a.m.: The car body, with trucks
attached, is lowered onto the second
9-axle truck for the drive to the Park.

) Thanks to Best Buy on Los Feliz forthese great TV’s! Shop at Best Buy!

For membership
information, call
323-668-0104

EXPRESS AGENTS
Melissa Arizpe
Gus Barden
Ken Bray-Ali
Bristow Family
Dale Brown
Kim Campbell
Cervantes Family
Michael Christansen
Kim CochranRiley Cohn
Juliana Crovch
David A. DeJute
Patrick Dore
Margie Edison
Christopher & Mary Eichler
Jeffrey Fink
Lisa Fisher
Laura Frazer

Peter & Jaime Gertmenian
Kelly & Connor Gilmore
Louis J. Gonzalez
Frederick V. Grenot
Maria Grimson
Marina Groysman
Laura Horn
Nicole Jacobson
Jonas Johnson
Gino Joukar
Marilynne Kennedy
Wendy Knutson
Savina Kollmorgow
Alec Krueger
Tina & Mark Lavallee
Karen Lewer
Terry Mayling
Eileen McCarthy

3

Michael Melo
William Meyers
Wendy Miller
Andy & Lisa Milne
Kristine Mitchell
Sandra Molieri
Vicky Montes
Kim Nakamura
Jonathan Norman
Melissa O’Gara
Ileana Ortiz
Dean & Jennifer Pappas
Lucas Pearce
Christine Peters
June Polin
Diane & Timothy Price
Benjamin Raimo
Ray Reynolds

Shari Rosenthal
David Russell
Jordan Daniel Salas
Suzanne Sanchez
Rocio Sandaval
Oliver Schaack
Barbara Schlosser
Jake Schneider
Pam Shamshiki
Henry & James Silva
Russ Squires
Eric Stein
Shari Steinberg
Ross Tansey
Martha Ventura
Stephanie Williams

On the Platform . . . Bob Arbuckle
This issue’s On the Platform features one of our wonderful docents, Bob Arbuckle. And we congratulate Bob on his recent marriage to Linda Lammers!
! Congratulations to the
newlyweds!

Bob began volunteering at Travel Town in 1997. Railroads were afamily business for Bob; his wonderful dad, the late Wayne Arbuckle,
had a long career with the Santa Fe Railroad and volunteered with us
for several years in the ‘90s after his retirement. Wayne had a profound effect on our volunteering program, giving first-hand knowledge of working on the railroad, from brakeman to front office to receiving clerk. Wayne received his “Brakeman” card from the Santa Fe
railroad back in 1955 and proudly showed it off whenever he volunteered! Wayne knew how to spend his retirement years – he gave backto the community by volunteering not only here at Travel Town but
also at the Gene Autry Museum and the Natural History Museum!
We got to know Bob when he accompanied his dad to our Christmas parties and other Travel Town events. Bob now continues hisfather’s tradition by regularly volunteering as a docent for us, with
the Pullman car Hunter’s Point being his favorite.

" Bob shows off the interior of the
Pullman car Rose Bowl.

“The Little Nugget” Guest Book Comes Home!
Earlier this year, the Travel Town Museum Foundation received avery wonderful donation from Rich Ruh, Grandson of Johnny T.
Ruh, the bartender of the
Little Nugget. The entire Ruhfamily has been very supportive in our restoration of“The Little Nugget” and thiscontribution is a fantastic artifact! This book has original
signatures, poems, and traveling notes from riders of“Johnny T” at the Bar in the famous “Little“The City of Los Angeles”
Nugget.” (Ruh family photograph, ASRA
dating from 1942 throughcollection.)1945 — attesting to the factthat “the Little Nugget” was one of the few lounge cars that operated during World War II, a period when troop movements took
took precedence and the government forbid the operation of “nonrevenue” cars in the train. This book appears to be the sequel to theoriginal signature book that is currently at the Union Pacific Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. The last entry in the first book was
dated December 6, 1941 (for you younger folks, that was the day
BEFORE the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor). One of the famous
signatures we recognized was from Tommy Dorsey, a band leader
known for such songs as “I’m getting Sentimental Over You” and“I’ll Never Smile Again.” Another famous band leader who signed
the book was Benny Goodman, famous clarinetist.

Here’s a poem from someone who signed the same page as Tommy
Dorsey:Physically a train is a cold thing of steel,Spiritually it is a warm human thing you can feelWhy?
That’s easyIt’s the engineer, the fireman, the conductor, the steward,
Gentleman all, prime hosts of the land
Three cheers for them all – long may they stand!
Another poem:
We rode in this car but not very far
The girls who were with us were “movie stars”
The roadbed is excellent and we’re not kidding,But believe it or not our cocktails went skidding!
A.B. Malouf and Sperry Lawson from Los Angeles

Greg Gneier and I met with a number of craneand heavy trucking contractors, but the best
offer came from a combination of Smith Brothers Crane services and Homer Mann Trucking. The City was going to process the purchase orders, so we submitted the quotes to
the Travel Town staff, and waited for City
purchasing system to run its course. My job
makes me travel extensively and often, but
the end of the year is generally a slow time forme, so we were trying to fast-track this so we
could make our deadline of trucking the craneby the end of 2006. We set a date for December 28th – because it was between the holidays, I had a larger crew to work with.
During the fall, several of us started disassembling parts of the crane, at least thoseparts we could without taking away its ability
to move on its own. Finally on December
23rd, we moved the crane from its parking
location for the last six years and moved it to
the west end where the cranes would haveroom to lift it onto trucks. We begin to takethe drive mechanism apart, and after taking a
break for Christmas, we got serious on the
26th. By the afternoon of the 27th the two
sections were ready to separate. Early thenext morning, a large crew of Travel Town
volunteers gathered next to Levitz and began
removing fencing and barricades. On cue, thetwo Smith Brothers cranes and support trucks
rolled in at 7:00 a.m. Over the next hour, thecrane crews “built” their cranes, preparing

them to share the two expected 115,000 pound
lifts. By 8:00 a.m., the first of the nine-axle
trucks had arrived and we were soon lifting
the house off the car body. Adding the loads
from the two cranes, the house was weighing in almost 12,000 pounds less than we expected. It was quickly swung over the street
and onto the first truck. As soon as the house
was centered and cribbed, the truck pulledforward and the second pulled into place.
Once the riggers had re-rigged for the car
body, it too went into the air. Unfortunately
we then found out where the missing 12,000
pounds was. The load was still within thecapacities of the combined cranes, but as they
were swinging it out over the street, there
were a few tense moments as the load meterslowly crept up near the limit as it boomed
out to reach the truck.
By 10:00 a.m. the trucks were loaded, and we
took off for Travel Town via the 134 freeway
and the Zoo Drive exit, and then parked along
Zoo Drive while we waited for the crane. The
cranes still had to break down to be street
legal again and took another hour to hit theroad but by 11:00 a.m. they were on their way
and then were quickly re-rigged to lift again
inside the northwest corner of the Park along
Track 8-West. Unloading was much more
complicated due to the access and clearance
issues. And it was compounded by the factthat the nine-axle truck carrying the car body
can’t back with a load. It had to pull straightin the gate and up and over Track 8 between
the two cranes, and then with the load up in
the air, back out from under the load, with me
towing the back end with Travel Town’s
loader. And lifting the house wasn’t mucheasier. Since one crane had set up with its
outriggers fouling the track, and the second
truck also had to pull up and over the track,
we had to move the car body out of the way.
That meant the smaller crane had to retract
its outriggers, we pulled the car body to theeast with Charley, the crane reset its

outriggers, the truck pulled in, the cranes
lifted the house, the truck backed out, thecranes set the house on the ground adjacentto the track on blocks, the crane again pulled
its outriggers in, we pushed the car body backinto place, Charley escaped to the East, thecrane reset its outriggers, and they again
picked the house up and finally placed it on
the car body. But that simple description wasin reality a major chore. The car body had thevertical drive shaft sticking straight up in theair, and that had to be plumbed perfectly into
the bearing in the center of the house. In
addition, the slewing gear had to mesh exactly with the bull gear and the gib ring had
to align perfectly around the circumferenceof it all. Needless to say, that in itself took anhour or more to accomplish. But I have toreally tip my hat to the crew from Smith Brothers Crane. Little of the unloading had goneaccording to plan, largely due to more weightin the car body, and the fact that the trucks
could not back in. But the crane operatorsand riggers never complained. We just put
our heads together, and figured out how tomake it work. And work it did. We were stillon time compared to the estimate, and not asingle injury.
Since January, we’ve spent almost every Saturday and a few Sundays putting the drive
train back together, repairing air leaks andreplacing rubber diaphragms in all the operators. But we’ve operated it twice under
its own power now. And have even used it
to switch once. We have a lot of mechanicalwork to do, and still more painting and othercosmetic work, but by the time you read this,the boom should be reinstalled, and who
knows, we may have even done a small lift
or two.

¨

Looking at the signatures and the comments in this book is likelooking into the past. Imagine traveling across the country in opulent style – maybe this is your first trip across our great nation,
maybe you’ve made the trip several times for business. You decideto go into the bar car for a drink and sign your name to a book on
the counter. Many folks are very appreciative of the great service
from Johnny; one complains about the food that has been rationed(instead of steak in the dining car, he could only have hamburger orchicken). Maybe some time 50 years in the future someone will pullup a blog from 2007 on Myspace.com, but I rather doubt it. This
book is a wonderful time capsule of comments and public opinion
about traveling in the 1940s.

I contacted American Ohio Locomotive
Cranes of Bucyrus, Ohio, and they supplied
us with lots of technical advice, new operators’ manuals, and component weights. Theirsales manager, Craig Goodenough, even offered to come look at our crane on his next
trip to the West Coast. He supplied us with awealth of knowledge of how it could be disassembled, and he left me with the confidence
I could safely take it apart, and even more
importantly, that I could put it back together.

¨Red arrows indicate the signaturesof Tommy Dorsey (above) andBenny Goodman (right).

2

4:50 p.m.: Now at Travel Town, after
a lot of site preparation (and lunch),
the car body has been lifted off thetruck and held in the air while the 9axle truck backed out from underneath.
Soon the car body will be lowered
onto the Museum rails.

5:55 p.m.: The car body is on the rails
and has been moved out of the way by
our locomotive “Charley.” The second
9-axle truck has pulled in across the
track and Smith Bros. cranes have lifted
the machinery house off the truck. The
9-axle will now back out of the way.

7

6:27 p.m.: The 9-axle truck out of theway, Charley pushed the car body backinto position under the machineryhouse. Now comes the delicate
operation of realigning the two pieces:“threading a needle” to get the center
drive shaft perfectly lined up.

10:20 p.m.: Both halves of the crane areback together at Travel Town, the sitecleaned up, and Smith Bros. have packed
up their cranes and gone on to their next
job ... an exhausted, filthy and delighted
Greg Ramsey can finally take a breath.

— Nancy G.

Fun reading and education in two beautiful color books about traveling in the“good old days.” As volunteer director,
I am always looking for books that
present the history of railroad travelthat our docents can read and thusinterpret our passenger cars. Twofantastic books recently publishedfill this bill nicely: Travel by Pullman, a Century of Service by Joe
Welsh and Bill Howes (MBI
Publishing Co.) and Santa Fe’s
Super Chief and El Capitan,
1936-1971 by Patrick Dorin(TLC Publishing Co.) Both of thesebooks really provide great information
about traveling on the trains, and golly,
we sell them both in our gift shop! Comein and pick up a copy and learn about customer service aboard the trains.

A color copy of this newsletter isavailable on our website at
www.traveltown.org -- click the“Hours & Activities” button. If you
would like to sponsor the Travel
Town Tender being printed in color,please contact Nancy Gneier at
323-668-0104. Thanks!

New at the Gift Shop!
AMERICAN SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY ASSOCIATION
P.O. BOX 39846 - GRIFFITH STATIONLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90039
323-668-0104 • www.traveltown.org

Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Glendale, CA
Permit No. 6

A Publication of the Travel Town Museum Foundation

Volume 5, Issue 1
May 2007

Greetings from Travel Town!
Have you been out to Travel Town to see the “Crane” yet? The
World War II era American Locomotive Crane was donated several
years ago by the Boeing Corporation and was finally moved to theMuseum during the last week of 2006. Its large size and extreme
weight made transporting it to Travel Town quite the challenge; infact, it had to be separated into THREE pieces and required a seriesof different movements to get it all into the Park. Museum volunteers have been working overtime since mid-November, both toprepare for the “final move” in December and since then to complete the re-assembly. Under the fantastic leadership of Travel
Town Volunteer Greg Ramsey, the big girl is nearly back together
and ready for a formal dedication! The operational, Diesel-powered crane was built in 1942 for the United States War Department
and has a lifting capacity of 50 tons. Mr. Ramsey will share more
exciting details with us elsewhere in the Tender.
The long-awaited arrival of the Locomotive Crane is just the tip of
the iceberg when it comes to exciting projects going on at Travel
Town this spring. Since the first-of-the-year, we’ve had TWO more
great Boy Scout Eagle Leadership Projects completed at the Museum. Although the two scouts come from different locals, theirprojects worked in tandem to address a single long-standing display track issue. In December, Eagle candidate Gregory Ramsey, ofOxnard Troup 234, came in with a battalion of his fellow Boy Scouts

to perform a tie replacement and general remediation effort on Museum display Track 8-West – getting the track ready for the offloading of the arriving Locomotive Crane. Once the Crane was
comfortably “on the property,” our next Eagle candidate, Nick
Perino, of Burbank Troup 234, mounted an effort with fellow scoutsand students from Bellarmine-Jefferson High School to constructa landscape and ballast-retaining wall along side the same Track 8West. All of us at Travel Town are proud and appreciative of thegreat job both of these scouts did in leading their respective projects
to successful completion!
But wait, I may have saved the most exciting news for last… how
about a working steam locomotive at Travel Town? Well, I’m excited
to report that we’re on the way towards that goal! Under the leadership of Museum Volunteer Paul Boschan, venerable Southern Pacificlocomotive Number 20 is headed for a complete operational rehabilitation. Once completed, the S.P. 20 will be the first steamer to operate atTravel Town since the early 1960s. (I’ll bet there’s not many of ourreaders who remember the days when old Oahu No. 18 was chugging
around the Park.) The S.P. 20 project is just getting started, so keep an
eye on future Tenders and be sure to stop by the Park often to watch
the progress on this great locomotive resurrection!
See you at the Park!

Greg Gneier, President
May 2007Together again! After several decades apart, American Locomotive Crane 1887 was
finally reunited with her old companion CS&CV No. 1 at Travel Town on December 29,
2006 (above). The two World War II military units worked together at the Douglas
Aircraft plant inTorrance, California, in the 1950s and 60s. Our beloved little red engine
eventually left Torrance for an assignment at the McDonnell-Douglas plant in Long
Beach and came to the Park in 1989.
A vintage shot from the Travel Town Archives showing the two together at Douglas,
around 1960
The Travel Town Tender is a publication of the Travel Town Museum Foundation, a d.b.a. of the American Southwestern Railway Association, Inc. The Association is a
501(c)(3) non-profit educational corporation, dedicated to the preservation and interpretive presentation of railroad history. We work in partnership with the Los Angeles
City Department of Recreation & Parks, helping to support their operation of the Travel Town Museum. Contents © A.S.R.A., Inc., 2007, unless under other copyright.